Posted by cool_ambo on August 31st, 2015 | Comments Off on Andres At Bagumbayan (reposted)

The Rayadillo General stopped himself to investigate the raucus caused by the neighing Peta and Pira way down back of the garetta. Peta had took a shine on the finely groomed Pira who had nothing to do with the Stinky old Peta. So she kicked him exactly where it should hurt.

With Grandfather and Isko separating the horses, the general took another drag on his American cigarette. It was getting dark and he might as well finish the story now, he thought, because next time he comes he will continue to translate for them Rizal’s second book. He then continued his narration…..

Andres At Bagumbayan

by Cool_Ambo

The thin, small eye doctor proceeded to the kitchen with gusto and, with the same ardor, vehemently worked the wooden batidor all the while telling me some jokes that I supposed were standard jokes from among his ilustrado friends in Europe. I did not laugh before he did though, because I could never know when he was serious or not. This man was serious in disposition, I once concluded, only to realize that it was worse. He was really a dreary, fate-beaten, gloomy man who appeared to be under the weather all the time. His glee that he exhibited for me were downright profound, though. He didn’t have many friends, that was for sure.

He glanced at me more than once through the doorway of the kitchen to perhaps keep the conversation going and to make sure that I didn’t depart early because he prepared for this occasion and that the milk had to be ladled in before it spoils.

And so, over the frothy and thick tsokolate espanol in tiny teacups, he talked about the firebrand, Andres. He saw this man first when he came in the church to hear mass, among other things. He was seated spread-eagled over half the length of the pew. When their eyes met. Rizal gave Andres a nod of hello for which Andres nodded back in a bow. The Cura saw them nod at each other, nods which may have been interpreted as an approval of a scheduled secret meeting. The priest knew about Andres’ secret group and, at this instance, he now deduced that Rizal was in on it too, particularly when he saw both of them after mass talking to each other.

Andres introduced himself to Rizal after the mass, declaring his amenities and respect for Rizal and recalling the two books that Rizal wrote. Both had mutual respect for each other, the doctor recounts, but he did not join Andres’ secret group.

Rizal described Andres as a hyperactive person who could not stay seated for long without fidgeting. He had to pace around to burn anxiety. He appeared to be very clean as if a daily bath was a habit, or diving for pearls was an occupation. He was built well and had the makings of a bull pulling a plow. At any rate, Rizal confided in me that he told Andres of his fear that a carnage would follow should there be a revolution now, to which Andres replied what would happen will happen. With this in mind, Rizal declined to speak to the secret group of Andres.

Several meetings followed this. Sometimes they met in church, at the dalampasigan, tiangge, anywhere but this his place of business where we were. This is being watched I was sure of this, which is why he wrapped the two books he gave me with red Chinese paper, the kind they wrap rice cakes with. In these meetings, Rizal told Andres what to tell his group as if Rizal was speaking to the group, and he told me he was glad of the news that the group was getting bigger with some distinguished and educated people joining. He was assured that the group would have some capable people to take over and run the government should it fall. And this was probably the main reason for the tsokolate espanol celebration, and the jokes. But that evening was delightful despite the fact that we had to be suspicious of every sounds of hob-nailed boots from the outside walk.

The next time I saw Dr. Jose Rizal was not the best of times. He had his elbows tied together behind his back while marching between two rows of guardia civiiles towards a spot in Bagumbayan.

As they marched past me, I peered thru the line of people and waved the red wrapping paper at him. He smiled as he recognized me and smiled. He remembered the red chinese paper snd nodded his head a number of times. He was elated to know that I have read the books and that I have agreed to retell it to the people. And then he saw what I thought was the figure of Andres at the opposite row of the crowd. There were some peop;le with him who looked as restless and as anxious as Andres, who suddenly barged through the crowd as if grimly waiting for a signal from the doctor. Rizal did not nod this time. he shook his head, instead, with more vigor the second and the third time around. With a pouted mouth, he pointed towards his shoe which he appeared to be shaking off the dust. Andres gave him a questioning stare. But Rizal might have been giving Andres a clue that there is something hidden in his shoe, most probably the Order of Battle for the revolution. The Lieutenant of the firing squad came up to see what is holding up the march. And thusly did Andres and his men fade away towards their boats.

The doctor declined his blindfold. The Teniente refused to make him face the firing squad. At the last moment, though, the doctor spun around to receive the shots at the front.

At that precise moment, the General stopped to appraise the impact of his last sentence to his audience. Some were heard sobbing. More so because the night was upon them and that their faces could not be recognized. The coughs are still distinctive, only that their faces are distinguished only from the light of their balulang cigarettes when they puff. The hush was also the cue for Isko to harness Peta to the calesa. It also gave the General the time to comment on Andres. He said that Andres possessed a splendid physique and a magnetic personality which was so commanding that when Andres says ‘tara na’ to his men the General finds himself preparing to go for no reason at all.

Andres would charge a rampart with or without men following him, ignoring any effort to restrain him from doing so. Such a big heart for battle earned him full adoration from his men. But he did go against the level-headed tactics of the other generals. There were disagreements all around, and when finally he realized that to win battles military tactics are needed. This he knew little about. The time that he gave in and followed the orders of the other generals was about the time when he was brought down.

Tragic, very tragic, decried the Rayadillo General.

Somebody handed the General a lit cigarette and he took a drag from it. Too late, he smoked a balulang! And so he started to cough hard, even harder as he climbed Isko’s calesa, up to the time that the calesa rounded the bend, a cough here, a spit there—clearly audible from the garetta, peopled with faces dimly-lit from cigarette embers.

And as the cacophony of sounds faded into the distance, the General’s coughings gradually merged contrapuntal with the clippity-clop-clippity-clop of the horse of Isko, Peta.

Posted by cool_ambo on August 26th, 2015 | Comments Off on The Gail Howard Mistake, continued again

The Gail Howard Mistake, continued

I was working on the Hit Chart with 3294 draw on the left column, or RPT #7, when I noticed that on some particular horizontal rows that are my favorite lines the numbers of which always include 7 of the winning numbers, it did not tally with my own chart.

Thereafter I started to check on the number of hits for each number because the number of hits do determine the ranking. Lo, I found out that some are off mostly by one hit over my stats. There are some lotto numbers that tally with mine, like numbers 1,7, 12,20,21,32, 38, and etc. Numbers 2, 5, 8,9, and etc. were one hit more than my stats.

So I made a file count of my Canada National 649 + B .doc list and it came out complete, 3295 draws in 3295 files. Next I checked the lotto numbers 2 and 8 on my draw number and hit program, and they checked with my stats. Next I ran my program on find lotto number and print draw number and hit total, and this also checked with my stats. So now I checked the Advantage Gold Hot Chart on RPT #7, 3294 draws, for the total number of hits

I used the Advantage Gold chart RPT #2 for comparison, or the find lotto number chart. I printed this chart, all 20 pages of it which contains 3 columns of Draws and dates and the number 2 in bold font to show which draw that it hit. Afterwards I counted MANUALLY those bold-lettered number 2 to come out with 403 hits on the main numbers and 52 hits on the bonus numbers, to make a total of 455 hits. The Hit Chart shows the number of hits for 2 as 456, or one count over.

I did the same procedure for lotto number 8. I came out with 395 hits on the main numbers and 68 hits on the bonus numbers, totaling 463 hits, which is again one hit less than the Hit Chart.

How could this have come about? We can presume that the counting may be mistaken. If a retainer actually sends Gail Howard the results of the draws, then it might be that the retainer (USA Today) is in error as regards the numbers that hit. This is not likely though, because the results of the manual counts that I made using RPT #2 are exactly what I am getting in my own Find Number stats.

I say this is a programming error. No offense meant but I am not exactly error free in programs like this. In Basic programming, accuracy in counting relies on these entries:

X=0

X=X+1

Open “C:P101) for Input as #1

Input #1, A,B,C,D,E,F,N,G

If EOF(1) then

Goto

Print X

These instructions are basic on basic programming for lotto numbers. The result of the count, or the final value of X, depends upon the positions of these instructions. If the instructions began with X=1 before the Input, then the count may be one over the true count. And then again if the EOF or End Of File is preceded by X=X+1, chances are the count will be one over the correct count.

For the 200 lottery games managed by Gail Howard, the printing of the charts would be as automatic as can be made upon receipt of the winning numbers. The small staff needed to run the outfit will not be able to handle a complete check of every draw for every chart. It is therefore imperative that the programs for these charts be checked regularly for errors.

Note that the basic instructions as I enumerated above can be further modified to obtain some results very much different from the A* Charts. But then again, I never took formal instructions on basic programming, much less on game programming.

Posted by cool_ambo on August 26th, 2015 | Comments Off on Mr. Joe Hicks Replies

A couple of minutes ago, programmer Mr. Joe Hicks sends an email which states thusly:

For the past month and a half, the other person in this office has been hospitalized and has not been available so I have been required to do everything. That person has been with us for a very long time and we will not replace her. She should be back to work in another week or two.

I see now that I did not read your first email thoroughly and misunderstood what you were saying. I am very interested in any mistakes in Advantage Gold.

If the mistakes you are mentioning are in Advantage Plus, then I will not fix them — that software is obsolete. But I will definitely fix any mistakes you see in Advantage Gold (we’ve already had 23 free updates since March when the program was released).

Just tell me which chart or charts have the mistake and I will check it out as soon as I can get to it. My time right now is limited but I will get to it. I still have some other bugs that aren’t fixed but I’m working on them as much as I can.

I apologize for the initial negative snap response.

Best Regards

Joe Hicks

Smart Luck

(I did not realize the situation that he is in right now, so apologies accepted with my sympathies. I am now tasked to provide him with the suggestions regarding his minor errors in programming. These suggestions will come on the next post as it is now 5:38 am here and I need to clear my mind with a sleep. But you readers should be assured that his errors will not affect the A* charts much as regards good betting strategy.)

MY ATTITUDE! We track over 220 lotteries. We pay a service to get the USA and Canadian results — the same one used by USA Today and other media outlets — and guess what, did you happen to notice how much we charge for the history?

—– NOTHING! We do the best we can do and will continue to do so within reason. We do not and cannot guarantee that there are not missed drawings from time to time or mistakes in the numbers. When SPECIFIC mistakes are pointed out to use we correct them immediately and they become part of our next day’s updates.

Best Regards

Joe H, Smart Luck Technical Support

Extended Help exthelp@smartluck.com

1-727-441-8714 Monday-Friday 1:00-5:00 pm EST (gmt-5)

> Once more, I pointed out your mistakes and how I got them from your

> own programs.

> I will not do your work for you.

> This is your program.

> YOU correct your mistakes.

> I will tell you how in my blog.

> This email communication will be attached to it.

> Tell me how you corrected it and I will refrain from publishing this

Posted by cool_ambo on August 15th, 2015 | Comments Off on Economics 101x

Economics 101x

Economics 101x, now this is different from the word Echo-nomics, although the difference is so subtle that we may just as well characterize them as having the same difference.

I did declare that the subject of Economics is not my forte meaning to say that I do not have close adherence to the principles that the subject embraces. Frankly I do have contradictions to the very laws that Economics propagates. This negative opinion against the subject has nothing to do with my teacher.

I do not remember his name and I do not recall his face, but there are things that stick to my mind regarding this guy. I am reminded mostly of his unique timing of stepping out of the room the instant the bell rings. He does this so that you can always time it to collect your stuff the minute he starts picking up his briefcase to step out of the room.

He heads for the gym afterwards to play ping pong. I followed him of course, not to watch him play but to watch her play. I am referring to the tall Chinese lanky girl he plays with, the one with legs that look like twin baseball bats, trying needlessly to be covered by her short, green tartan skirt. I got engrossed with her playing, not his playing. In fact I never got serious in watching the game. Instead, I focused on her while she darted all around the table back and forth.

Anyway, I realized from the way he emphasized the theories of “embargo’, and “let-alone-policy” with gestures that reminded me of paddle strokes, that he should have taught ping-pong instead of Economics.

Going back to Economics, (boy you do have a way of drifting from the topic), you should have noticed that the price of gas went up, not down, when the cost of a barrel of gas was halved from $100 a barrel to $50 a barrel. What gives? Now this is against the Law of Supply and Demand, which says that the more the supply is, the lesser is the price. There is now more supply of oil in Alberta because of the fact that it is not exported much elsewhere. Remember the mad cow disease? Such publicity in Alberta caused the price of beef to skyrocket, again going against the rule. The unprecedented increase in the supply of beef in Alberta should make the price go down. Take cigarettes for example. There are not a lot of people smoking cigarettes nowadays, and the demand should be less, still the price of cigarettes is way up. The Law of Supply and Demand is irrelevant, nay, inutile as of today. Those who adhere to its principles would only echo the Economics of old.

It could be superseded by something like

the Law of the Profit;

which should go this way :

profit should be upheld regardless of supply or demand.

And while we are on the subject of countermanding rules to formulate new ones, think of something like this. If man has all the money to purchase all that he needs, plus something extra to purchase what he wants, the money in excess will generate the capital for investment. If the government helps the people to get this kind of money, this government will be a socialist government.

For all we know, capitalism,

or that which is the by-product of democracy,

would have for its venue and objective, socialism.

But we have now entered the realm of political science, a subject which is, again, not my forte.

Posted by cool_ambo on August 8th, 2015 | Comments Off on The Card That Is Donald Trump

The Card that is Donald Trump

The first debate for the Republican Presidential Nomination marked the first time it is formalized the concerted effort of media bashing against candidate Donald Trump. It was clear that, with the personal not political , questions fielded by the moderators, the media is out to bring down Trump down as if he has grown too big for his breeches. Parrying the intrusive questions of the female what’s-her-name moderator about Trump’s offensive comments about women with wit and humor, Trump further revealed his unique trait of having a livewire, touch-me-not, posture.

One significant thing that I learned from Trump on this debate is his distinctive definitions between the “politically correct” candidates and the candidates who simply narrate the problem and say how to fix it. The politically correct candidate assumes the disposition of being properly educated and culturally mannered as befitting the wealthy, with strict adherence to the rigmaroles of the campaign and the rigodon of pleasing would-be voters. The honest to goodness candidate prefers the Abe Lincoln formula of wooing voters, which is enumerating what is being done wrong and then relating how it can be fixed.

It appears that the greater majority of the voters appeal to the Abe Lincoln formula. Consequently, these voters can easily relate to Trump and believes that what Trump is thinking is similar to what they are thinking. After all this, a great majority of Trump’s followers sincerely believe that Trump is the only one who could help them.

Trump does not believe on illegal immigrants, but he cares for those documented and legal immigrants. Now when the issue of immigration and health care expenses came out, some candidates believe that these two problems are related. As a result, the trend of thinking that the Republicans believe now is that the Obamacare is too expensive for the government to undertake because it also has to pay for the health care of illegal immigrants!

This media bashing of Donald Trump may have a negative effect on the campaigns of Trump’s opponents. It is actually giving him undue publicity, not on his personal quips and quotes, but on the ills obtaining on the present administration. Also, they should realize that as of the trend of times, as of today the people favor those who are being bullied.

The media should by now realize that, by putting Trump always on prime time, it attracts the viewers and readers. With his wit and humor and sincere approach to governing, he is now qualified to be on center stage. He is filling up the seats. He is packing them in.